Demountable freight container



Jan, 2S, w3. B. F. FITCH DEMOUNTABLE FREIGHT CONTAINER 4 sheds-sheet 1 Filed April 29, 1935 gmc/Mm f a @f4 am., 28, E93. E, F, FITCH DEMOUNTABLE FREIGHT CONTAINER Filed April 29, 1933 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 DEMOUNTABLE FRE IGHT CONTAINER Filed April 29, 1953- 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 i 3mi,

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DEMOUNTABLE FREIGHT CONTAINER Filed April 29, 1953 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented Jan. 28,. 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT .OFFICE DEMOUNTABLE FREIGHT CONTAINER Application April 29, 1933, Serial No. 668,514

` claims.

Systems of transferring freight employing demountable truck bodies, which may be lifted with CTI their loads from a highway truck and deposited on a flat car for rail. transportation, and at the end of the rail haul placed on another truck for delivery to destination, are in effective use in various districts. Such system has been found very beneficial and its use is increasing, as the system avoids the delay and other disadvantages of breaking bulk and repacking at either end of the rail haul, inherent in the old box-ear method of transportation, and likewise materially reduces the expense over that of continuous inter-city highway trucking.

However, difficulties are presented in the provision of demountable bodies suitable for both highway trucking and railway transportation. 'I'here are several factors involved in this difference, one being that the stresses on the body in highway truck transportation are largely in a vertical direction, due to the unevenness of the city streets or roads; the stresses are likewise principally in a vertical direction during the lifting of the body with its load from the truck and its placement on the railway car, or vice versa; while in rail transportation the stresses are principally horizontal in a direction longitudinally of the body, due to the tugging and bufflng strains in starting and stopping of the train. Permissible clearances and Weights on the truck transportation are also troublesome factors which must be met.

For convenient loading of long articles in the body, it is essential that there be a door at the end. Also by reason of the fact that the train facilities may result in the body being mounted either end foremost on the truck, it is required that doors be provided in each end of the body. Likewise, these two end doors permit optional unloading irrespective of the route order. Furthermore, by reason of one-way traic ordinances, particularly governing trafiic movements in side streets o'flarge cities, side doors on each side are necessary in order to allow the discharge of freight at the curb, and such side doors are also important as an aid when a plurality of consignments is to be loaded into or out of the body. From this it has developed that four door-openings per body is essential.

I have found that the efficient way to coordinate highway trucking with rail transportation is to provide as large a truck body as is feasible for city trucking and to arrange two of these bodies end to end on the standard dat car and three bodies on special longer cars for rail transportation. When so mounted on the at car, the side doors give little trouble, as they are not subjected to impacts of the shifting tarii loads Within the body, but the matter of the end doors has presented a problem very difficult of solution. No matter how well the load is packed, there is a tendency to shift longitudinally when the train starts, and again when it stops. As the engineer frequently, in starting the train, backs up to take up the slack and starts it with an excessive jerk, there is sometimes a vcly violent impact against the rear doors of the containers.

Now, means must be provided to resist this rail-haul impact, no matter how great, not only to prevent distortion of the doors but to prevent any such loosening as would interfere with the water-tight seating of the doors in their jambs. On the other hand, to make the doors and door jambs and adjacent parts sufficiently large and heavy to resist this stress, introduces disadvantages in the truck hauling of the body, as not only is the weight unduly increased, but the over-all dimension is unduly enlarged, unless the cubical content of the body is sacriced, and inconvenience is presented in manipulating the doors for packing or removing the freight in the body.

To meet the exacting requirements mentioned, I have devised the system of this application, wherein the body is provided with means for carrying removable braces at its ends, which may be mounted on the body after the same has been placed on the flat car, these braces operating eifectively to prevent the troublesome displacement or distortion of the end doors during transportation, While the body provisions for mounting such braces do not at all interfere with the truck operations or the crane operations of the body.

The removable braces may be associated with the railway car for use with any demountable body formed to receive them, which may be presented for transportation on such car, or they may form a part of the equipment associated with the crane operation, the crane crew detaching the braces from Ireceived cars before the bodies are removed and placing them on freshly installed bodies after the bodies have been deposited thereon.

My invention covers such a system of bracing and also the formation of the cooperating body which enables the bracing to be readily applied. This is illustrated by the drawings hereof, which In the drawings, Figs. 1 and 2 are side elevations indicating two of my demountable bodies 4mounted on a at car, and one of said bodies on a truck, respectively. Fig. 3 is an end view of the demountable body, as braced for use on the at car. Fig. 4 is a horizontal section on the line 4-4 on Fig. 3. Figs-5 sections on a larger scale than Fig. 4, through the end ofthe body. Fig. 7 is detail of the body construction, being e. horizontal section as indicated by the line 1-1 on Figs. 3 and 6. Fig. 8 is a fragmentary vertical section of the upper end of one of the doors indicated by the line 8--8 on Fig. 6. Fig. 9 is a horizontal section on enlarged scale. through both end doors of the body, as indicated by the line 9 9 on Fig. 3. Figs. 10, l1, and 12 are details in vertical section, indicated by the correspondingly numbered lines on Fig. 3. Fig. 13 is a detail in vertical section adjacent the lower end of one of the end doors as indicated by the line I3-I3 on Fig. 12. Fig. 14

4is a detailin horizontal section on the line lli-I4 on Fig. 13. Fig. 15 is an end view of a portion of my contamer having a somewhat modified form of braces and body members for holding them. Fig. 16 is a vertical section, on a larger scale and partly broken away, through the end door of this modification. Figs. 17, 18, and 19 are details of this modification, their planes being indicated by the correspondingly numbered lines on Fig.. 16. Fig. 20 is a horizontal section through the upper portion of the body and above the doors, indicated by the line 20-20 on Figs. 1 and 3. Fig. 21 is an enlarged vertical section on the line 2l--2I on Fig. 20, looking from the inside toward` the adjacent end of the container.

As shown in 1 and 2, B indicates my demountable body, shown as mounted on a truck A or (two of the bodies end to end) on a flat car C; b indicates the side doors in the bodies, and b1 a system of suitably braced hooks carried by the body sides, enabling the body to be lifted intact with its load. Each body is provided at each end with a pair of end doors b2, Fig. 3, hinged at b3 adjacent the sides of the car, so that the end doors constitute nearly the entire end of the body.

'Ihe end doors l)2 may be of any suitable construction. They are Aillustrated in Fig. 4 as solid planking surrounded by a sheet metal facing,` and in Fig. 9, as comprising two members offset from each other to provide a rabbet at their inner edges. The rabbets of the two doors may receive a hollow post D, Fig. 9, carrying vertically slidable bolts d, d', Fig. 5, operated by a latch lever and link d2, d3. This hollow post may be rigidly secured to one of the doors, all as explained more fully in my copending application No. 625,977, filed July Irrespective of the particular construction of the doors themselves, they are formed to seat snugly in the door jamb provided by a Z-bar, b5,

and 6 are vertical and just below the doors. As this construction is slightly different in the embodiment of Figs. 4 to 14 and that of Figs. 15 to i9, I will describe these two embodiments successively.

Referring, therefore, to the first-mentioned vset of views, l0 indicates upright bars, of which four are shown, each comprising an outwardly bowed trough portion li and side flanges l2. These bars are adapted to seat at their upper ends behind down-turnefi flanges of a stiff Z-bar 20 firmly secured, as by riveting, to the end of the body. The lower ends of the bars l0 seat behind the upwardly extending flanges of Z-bars 30, secured te the base of the body. The lower edge of the flange of the topthrough 20 is just above i the top piane of the doors, as indicated in Fig. 10.

Likewise, the upwardly projecting flange of thev base member 30 -is just below thebottom plane of the doors, as indicated in Fig. 11. Hence, these trough-like members do not interfere at all with the opening of the doors, but when the braces are in place, seated behind the anges of the members, the doors are eiectively braced against any outward distortion due to internal impact.

I provide, within the upper tre-ugh 2B, means for positioning the upper ends or the braces I0, so that they will not shift laterally. One way of eiecting this is to mount within the trough 20 short, upwardly facing, channels 2|, which leave between their ends spaces for the reception of the brace bars l 0. Suitahie rivets, as 22, may pass through the downward frange of the trough 20 and through the inserted channels, through the Z-bar b5 of the door jamb, and through the top of the body wall b7 of the body, rigidly locking all these parts together. I have shown in Figs. lo and 20 a horizontal, internal trough-like brace 5t, hereinafter referred to, having edge flanges abutting the inner face of the body Wall b", and, as shown in Fig. 5, the rivets 22 may extend through the lower flanges of this internal brace, while other rivets 24, which secure the trough member 20 to the door jamb bar and end plate of the body, may pass through the upper ange of the internal brace.

It will' be seen that by the means described, I have very effectively braced the end wail of the body immediately over the door, and at the same time I have provided downwardly open spaces for the reception of the Vertical brace 'bars I0.

The bottom trough 30 is shown as riveted to the Z-bar of the door jamb at the bottom. and to the end wall of the channel b8 of the base frame, as indicated by the rivets 33, Fig. 1l. I may mount in the trough 30 suitable members, shown as downwardly facing channels 3|, to brace the trough and provide stops for the end bars, these channels being secured in place by rivets 32, located as shown in the figure. To permit a certain amount of lateral swinging movement of the bars l0 at their lower ends to allow their installation and removal, I provide three of these channel-shaped fillers 3l for the bottom trough, one located cent-'ally and the other two adjacent the outer edges of the doors.

With such a construction as just described, the end bar may be readily inserted by placing it diagonally, as shown by the broken lines l0 in Fig. 3, shoving the upper end into the seat of the upper trough provided between the stops 2|, and then swinging the lower end of the bar transversely of the body, so that itslower end passes downwdly behind the upward flange of the trough 30 until it abuts the stop 3l, which it does when it becomes vertical. Then the adjacent bar may be inserted through the adjacent seat in the upper trough 20 and the lower end swung in the opposite direction until it abuts another of the stops 3|. When so mounted, the bars are parallel, as shown in Flg. 3, and are held against any lateral movement at their upper ends and against separation movement at their lower ends. Then to prevent the bars of the lower ends from approaching each other, I place between them a removable block 40, which may be a piece of wood formed as shown in Figs. 12 to 14, and by abutting at its ends against the sides of the bars I0, eifectively prevents their movement.- These blocks t snugly into place, and will readily ride during transportation, but are provided with some convenient means, as for instance, an upwardly extending eye 4|, to enable their removal.

In the embodiment shown in Figs. 15 to 19, I form the brace bars and the upper and lower troughs, here designated ||0, |20, and |30, respectively, somewhat differently from the bars and troughs I0, 20, and 30, already described. Thus, the brace bar ||0 is shown as of a T-rail cross-section, having a web a flange ||2, and a head 3, the flange ||2 of such rail, the web and-the head ||3 continuing throughout the length of the rail and the head of the rail I3 extending along the outer edge of the web and bending inwardly near the top and bottom, as illustrated in Fig. 16. This makes a very rm and stiff brace, suitable for resisting a very heavy impact against the doors.

To seat the I lpper ends of the braces I0, I have shown the top trough |20, provided with downwardly facing seats in the form of stirrups |2|, riveted to the intermediate web of the Z-member |20. To allow the brace bars to be closer together and not require so much swing of their lower ends for mounting them, thus allowing more of them to be employed if desired, I form notches |3| through the intermediate region of the upward flange of the lower trough |30. I may brace these troughs by electrically welded gussets |32, which form stops for limiting the movement of the brace bars.

In the construction described, each brace bar ||0 is inserted at its upper end in its seat |2|, and with the bar slightly diagonally the lower end is passed through the notch 3| and then the bar is swung into vertical position, where it abuts the corresponding gusset |32. Then the adjacent bar ||0 is similarly placed and swung against its gusset. These two bars are now parallel and the space between them within the trough |30 is lled by a block |40, preventing the approach of the bars.

It will be seen that whether I use the pressed metal brace bars of Figs. 3 to 14, or the forged rail-like members of Figs. 15 to 19, I have provided effective braces engaging the doors throughout their length in a number of parallel regions, and thus resisting the internal impact. The bars may be easily put in place, and when in place are effectively retained in vertical position and are rigidly held by iirm bracing at the upper and lower ends. Throughout their length, they bear against the outer sides of the doors and together with the hinges and the central door lock form a very effective bracing, preventing distortion of the doors, or loosening of the same from internal impact in rail transportation. At the same time, the bars may be readily removed and stored at the crane or on the flat car when the body is to be used for truck transportation.

The lower trough 30 being firmly secured to the base frame presents a Very rigid retainer for the lower ends of the base bars. The construction at the upper end is stiffened by the inside beam 50, heretofore mentioned, which may have a considerable horizontal depth, and hence stiffness. If desired, these parts may be further braced by diagonal tie rods leading to the sides of the body.

In Figs. 20 and 21, I have shown one form of tie-rod bracing for the door jamb and upper trough 20 or |20. As shown, a stripl60 is riveted to the body sides b9 directly opposite the upright bar blo, which carries the lift hook b1, and intermediately this strip is flattened and cut out so that it may lie against the flanges of the brace beam 50 to which it is riveted, as shown in Figs. and 21. As the hook strap 271 is further braced by diagonal rods b11 riveted to the body sides and spreading from the region of the strap b1, where the tension str'ap 60 is attached, it will be seen that this construction forms a rigid anchorage for the ends of the tie 60. There is thus provided an eifective brace for the center of the end wall directly above the central door post, thus resisting any outward stress at this point.

I claim:

l. A demountable body having a Z-bar door frame, a downwardly facing trough secured to the outer face of the body and to the door frame above the doorway, an upwardly facing trough secured to the body below the doorway, each of said troughs extending crosswise of the doorway, a removable vertical brace bar adapted to engage an intermediate region of the outer face of a door in the doorway, said bar being seated at,

its upper end within the upper trough and held against lateral movement therein, the lower end of the bar being seated within the lower trough, and means in the lower trough preventing movement of the lower end of the bar.

2. A demountable body having a doorway, a transverse downwardly facing trough secured to the body above the doorway, members within the trough separated from each other and providing open seats between them, upright brace bars spaced laterally from the pivoted edge of the door and externally of such door and having their upper ends adapted to enter said seats, an upwardly facing trough carried by the body below the doorway adapted to receive the lower ends of the brace bars and allow them to swing thereon, and means for positioning said brace bars after insertion in the bottom trough, stops secured within the bottom trough limiting the outward movement of the lower ends of the brace bars, and blocks adapted to seat within the bottom trough and reaching from one brace bar to the other to prevent their movement toward each other.

3. In a demountable body, an end door, a removable external brace adapted to extend across an intermediate region of the end door from top to bottom, and means mounted on the body above and below the doorway for retaining the ends of the brace.

4. A demountable body having at its end a. pair of doors hinged adjacent the body sides, means forming upwardly and downwardly facing trough effects, said means being secured to the outer face of the body respectively above and below the doorway, two pairs of vertical brace bars, one pair for each door, each pair being spaced laterally from the pivoted edge of the door and externally of such door and seated at their upper ends within the upper trough eiect and held therein against lateral movement, the lower ends of the bars being seated within the lower trough effect, 'stops within the lower trough eiect limiting separating movement of the lower ends of the bars of each pair, and blocks seated in the lower trough effect between the bars of each pair, to prevent the approach of said bars.

5. In a demountable body having a doorway and door therein, an external keeper mounted on the body above the door, an upwardly facing trough mounted externally of the body below the door, said trough having a notch in its outer wall, and a brace bar for the door having its upper end engageable with the keeper, the lower end being insertable into the trough through said notch when the upper end of the bar is engaged with the keeper, whereby the bar may occupy a mounted position behind the our wall of the trough, s aid bar being demountable from the body and door by disengagement from the trough and 10 keeper.

BENJAMIN F. FITCH. 

